Energy minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis and his Greek counterpart Yiannis Maniatis on Tuesday met the Vice President of the European Commission for the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič and discussed the exploitation of the natural gas resources of the eastern Mediterranean.
Israel’s energy minister Silvan Shalom was also expected to participate in the meeting, following the three ministers’ joint signing of a letter to Šefčovič but was unable to attend due to urgent election commitments.
Lakkotrypis and Maniatis underlined the need of the implementation of the Israel-Cyprus-Greece-Italy natural gas corridor (East-Med Corridor) for the energy safety of the EU.
Lakkotrypis called on the EC Vice President to support the countries of the region in their effort to evaluate the various politically feasible choices on the economic exploitation of the natural gas reserves, for the benefit of the European Union.
“The East-Med Corridor constitutes such a choice, while offering the additional advantage of passing exclusively through EU member states, thereby fully serving the interests and the aspirations of the EU,” Maniatis noted.
The East-Med corridor, which is expected to have the same capacity as the Southern Corridor (8-12 bcm), could constitute an extra alternative source and path for European countries, at a time when the prospect of such paths was raised to strategic priority by the EU.
Maniatis argued that studies to be prepared will confirm the technical feasibility and economic viability of the pipeline, which have already been suggested by initial studies.
Šefčovič showed great interest on the presented data and committed to examine ways to support the plan on behalf of the European Commission.
Published by: www.cyprus-mail.com
